Saxon are one of the long time flag bearers of what's affectionately known as ;Heavy Metal' by those who still believe. They were one of the original 'New Wave Of British Heavy Metal' bands, along with Iron Maiden and Def Leppard in the early 80's, who were putting out seminal albums but for some reason, Saxon never reached the lofty heights that those other bands did, yet they were putting out music that was just as good, if not better, than what those other bands were doing, which was a huge injustice but whatever. Doesn't take away one thing that Saxon has done in their musical career and this album, called Battering Ram, their 21st, is chock full of everything you'd expect to find in a classic Saxon album - crushing guitar riffs from Paul Quint, pounding, thunderous drums ("ramming speed Mr. Nigel") from Senor Glockler, and intense, anthemic vocal work via the Legend himself, Mr. Biff Byford, who hasn't lost a thing vocally in over 40 years with the band. He still sounds good and is a modern marvel of vocal work extraordinaire. I've been lucky enough to see Saxon numerous times throughout their illustrious career, no complaints ever, and while I don't profess to like everything they've done, they've got some really great, well crafted songs in their arsenal that will break your neck from headbanging too hard and shred your face off with rockin' intensity. There's some good songs on here - nothing that's going to knock any of their earlier classic tunes off of their 'greatest hits' set list, but still, if you're in the mood for some raucous hard hitting Heavy Metal music, done by some pro's who know what the fuck that shit is supposed to sound like, then you could do no wrong by listening to this album at a very loud volume and just annoying the shit out of your neighbors. Isn't that what Heavy Metal is for? LOL Good release from Saxon. Here's hoping to another 21 more. Cheers!

Available via CD, vinyl, digital download, etc., worldwide from UDR Music by clicking ﻿here﻿, but I don't advise the digital download option because unless you speak German, it's pretty much a crap shoot to get your MP3's from the website. The registration process to download anything is a nightmare. Also available everywhere else music is sold - ﻿Amazon﻿, ﻿Zia Records, and everywhere else music is sold.